In retail and service industries, they are essential for helping customers locate establishments. In corporate office parks, they make a silent, professional statement of branding that reinforces company presence.
Choosing the best possible fixture and the most appropriate lamp type should be done with the help of a commercial lighting design expert.
The lighting designer helps business calculate how much light is needed to make their signage stand out without looking too bright or too dim in comparison to the architectural, parking lot, and any landscape lighting on the property. The appropriate lamp type is then determined based upon the needed lumen output.
Color rendering is another important factor in choosing outdoor sign lights. The beam should illuminate both the color of the lettering on the sign and the background of the sign and/or building edifice. Without this key element, the sign may look monochrome or blurred from a distance.
The need for decorative fixtures varies based on the industry involved. Some buildings need a highly aesthetic compliment to their historical or eclectic architecture. Others do better with compact, low profile lighting fixtures. Again, the lighting designer helps the business choose the most appropriate and workable option in this domain.
Because signage varies widely from industry to industry and business to business, outdoor sign lights also vary in size, design, lamp type, and lamp wattages.
Gooseneck lights are the most common type of fixtures used for lighting painted signs and facades.
The name gooseneck derives from the long, slender neck of the fixture that can be turned and angled at any direction.
Not only does this allow for a precise distribution of light over the sign, but it also creates a highly aesthetic decorative factor that enhances the facade of the building. Buildings in historical district, as well as offices with theme architecture, are greatly enhanced by the aesthetic appeal that gooseneck lights contribute to their facades.
Metal halide flood lights are another form of outdoor sign lights. Pulse start technology and new energy efficient lamps make metal halide more reliable and brighter than ever. Metal halides can be mounted on the vertical surface of the wall and angled to sign up on an elevated sign or log on the side of the building. This is very common in the retail industry, because it draws immediate attention to store fronts, restaurants, and pubs.
These fixtures are equally effective when mounted on the ground. Monumentation made from darker colored materials, such as granite, requires a very bright light source with a high CRI to bring out the details in the sign, lettering, and any symbols displayed on its surface.
Fluorescent outdoor sign lights work essentially the same way as their metal halide counterparts.
They mount on either the ground and shine upward on a monument sign, or they mount vertically on the building and light a corporate brand or logo displayed on the edifice. Fluorescent lamps are still the most energy efficient lamps that produce a bright light with superb color rendering.
In areas where LEED certification is a priority, and in communities where new green initiatives are being undertaken on a city-wide level, fluorescents offer a superb lamp life, an excellent color rendering index, and an excellent lumen output for any application.
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